Towards a Virtual Coach for Boccia: Developing a Virtual Augmented Interaction Based on a Boccia Simulator

Disability can be a factor that leads to social exclusion. Considering that involvement in society is paramount for a person with disability, participation in sports can be a powerful tool for inclusion. Based on this premise, the authors propose an intelligent virtual coach for Boccia to encourage the practice of this sport on persons with disabilities, while promoting social inclusion and shortening the learning curve for individuals new to the sport by learning about game strategy. The envisioned virtual coach will rely on Artificial Intelligence models, thus requiring the creation of large datasets, namely for ball placement and throwing movement recommendations. To answer these problems, this work is focused on the development of a Boccia simulator. With this simulator, it is possible to generate artificial gameplay images and allow the user to control an avatar with body tracking. Gesture recognition was implemented with a state-machine, thus enabling the player to throw the ball, with customizable physics, by performing one of two different throwing movements. This functionality can allow the recording of data describing the body movement associated with the placement of the ball in a certain position within the virtual court, which is essential for the proposed recommendation system.